2017 GP Skate America Free Dance

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Can somebody explain the Shibs theme, cause I don't hear the lyrics clearly enough. All I hear is paradise, repeatedly and it becomes monotonous for me. I admire the Shibs technique and smoothness and really got and loved fix you but am struggling to love this as much as you all do. What am I not hearing?

I think it'd be best to let Maia and Alex's own words describe the theme of this program and the Black-Blue-Red trilogy. Here are give some links and quotes from the Shibs own words:

In short, "This season is about culminating this particular chapter of our skating . . . . We're dreaming of paradise together. That's the concept of the trilogy."

Alex and Maia's early interview with Lynn Rutherford:

Fix You, Evolution…Paradise.
The idea for Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani's free dance this Olympic season, set to Coldplay's 2011 single "Paradise," began taking shape two seasons ago, when the siblings reignited their career with another Coldplay song, "Fix You."
But it's been gestating for nearly two decades, ever since Maia took the ice at age 4, inspired by visions of Kristi Yamaguchi, Michelle Kwan and the Olympic rings.
When she was just a girl, she expected the world
But it flew away from her reach
So she ran away in her sleep and dreamed of paradise

"We connect to those lyrics so well," Alex said. "Maia started skating first; it was her dream. Then it became both of our dreams, something we could do together. And if you've followed our career, you know things flew away from our reach at a point. There were trials and tribulations and gut-check moments where you have to continue to dream."
"The song is something we feel in a layered, personal way," Maia said. "It's allowed us to find new ways to share who we are as people. To reach the point we're at, it wouldn't have been possible if we didn't believe in ourselves."

http://web.icenetwork.com/news/2017/10/18/258922394/shibutanis-hope-paradise-paves-the-way-to-gold

From Maia's blog for Team USA:

Free Dance:
Music: Paradise by Coldplay – arranged by Alex and Ryanimay feat. Jun Curry Ahn

We made the final decision that we would skate to “Paradise” while we were competing at the 2017 Four Continents Championships (the Olympic test event hosted in PyeongChang) in February. It was powerful listening to the piece in the Olympic venue in South Korea. Alex, Marina, Massy and I all felt it. This was the direction we HAD to follow. Choosing your Olympic free dance music is a crucial decision, and I realize how special it is that we were so sure of our direction.

Our free dance is very personal and its conception began towards the end of the 2015-16 season. Two years ago, we experienced a breakthrough and the trajectory of our career completely shifted. We won our first U.S. (senior) national title, our first ISU Championship event and returned to the world podium to win our second world medal. It had been five years since we won our first world medal in our debut year as a senior team back in 2011. In the history of ice dance, this has never been done. Traditionally when your results take a dip, there is no coming back five years later.

At the start of that season, we had reached a point where we decided that we needed to change. Alex and I came to the realization that when we compete, we don’t have to portray characters from an existing or well-known story like some of our competitors. There is enough room in the competitive field for different styles and it is enough for us if we are ourselves. Being ourselves for the past two years has allowed us to showcase one of the things that makes us unique on the ice. As siblings, we share a lifelong bond and through our skating and performances, we have been able to share how much we care about each other. Because we love what we are doing, we aren’t dependent on results to be proud of what we have done.

During the 2015-16 season, we skated to “Fix You” by Coldplay. Lyrics like: “When you try your best, but you don’t succeed” and “stuck in reverse” really spoke to us. Alex and I were vulnerable and we made the decision to skate for each other. When we decided to skate to Coldplay, contemporary music wasn’t a common choice and we really had no way of knowing that those incredible results were possible. That season taught us the power and importance of being true to ourselves.

In a lot of ways because of that season, we had a fresh start to our career. With the two remaining years in the current Olympic cycle in mind, we developed the concept of creating a free dance trilogy. Last season, we called our program “Evolution.” It was “Part 2” of our trilogy and we made a conscious decision to be more abstract and challenge ourselves with the creative process. We wanted to show a different side of our skating and we skated to music that definitely wasn’t as well known. After the 2015-16 season, a weight was lifted of our shoulders. A quote from “Man of Steel” (2013) really inspired us to keep pushing to become stronger and to grow as artists: “You’ve grown stronger here than I ever could have imagined… the only way to know how strong is to keep testing your limits.”

Following our breakthrough season, we knew we weren’t “done.” We had just set a new standard for what was possible for us. Last year, we experienced a lot of competitive success and we proved to ourselves that we could compete under any circumstance. With both of our programs, we made huge advancements with our creative process and the growth and evolution that we experienced gave us so much confidence heading into this year.

That brings us to this year’s free dance. The trilogy concept was captivating to us because it gave us direction and encouraged us to continue to be true to who we are. We know that this year, there will be viewers who have never seen us skate before. Alex and I don’t expect people to go back and watch our programs in order. This program has been created so that it can stand alone. Our emotional connection to the music and the journey we have been on, is what makes this program our strongest creative concept yet.

Trilogy
Fix You -> Evolution -> Paradise

The first year, we were coming from a place of being discouraged and unsure of our identity. We dug deep and together, Alex and I fixed ourselves. The second year, with Evolution, we grew and progressed. This year with Paradise, we are becoming the skaters we always hoped we could be – reaching our Paradise together.

The choice of the piece we were using didn’t just work because of the title of the song. Lyrically, “Paradise” really speaks to us.

When she was just a girl
She expected the world
But it flew away from her reach
So she ran away in her sleep
And dreamed of paradise.

When we were a young team, we experienced unprecedented and rapid success. While we continued to improve, we weren’t equipped to stay at that very elite level. It was hard not to be discouraged, listen to the noise and give in to doubt. We reached the point that we did in 2015 because we always believed in ourselves and continued to dream and work to improve. This year's program is really a celebration of the special bond that we share.

When Alex and I first learned how to skate, I immediately knew I wanted to be a skater. I loved the feeling of being on the ice and I wanted to skate all the time. My dream was to skate at the Olympics like my heroes, Michelle Kwan and Kristi Yamaguchi. Alex, on the other hand, had other interests and didn’t begin skating more seriously until later. It wasn’t until we started skating together that my dream became OUR dream. In ice dance, we found something that we both loved and inspired us to work to be our best.

In order to be at our best this season, we turned to people that we really trust for help and advice. The main choreographers are Marina and Massimo, but we also worked with Stéphane Lambiel, Renee Roca, Alex Wong, Serge Onik, Hokuto Konishi and Peter Tchernyshev.

https://www.teamusa.org/News/2017/O...s-For-Olympic-Season-And-The-Creative-Process

Maia and Alex explaining to Inside Skating after Rostelecom the trilogy concept and how Paradise fits:

I remember you posted on Instagram about the trilogy: Fix you, Evolution, and Paradise. Can you tell about this trilogy a bit more?

Maia: We posted about that on Instagram very early on, because this is a concept we’ve been developing since, I’d say, midway through 2015-16 season.

Alex: December of 2015.

Maia: Yeah, that season was a breakthrough year for us, for many reasons. But I think it was really the first season for us where we were truly ourselves as performers, and we put so much into that program and our skating, and we’ve come into our own as a team.

Alex: We were skating for ourselves.

Maia: And that led to some incredible moments and great results. But beyond that, heading into what would be our second Olympic Games, we knew that we had set this goal of becoming the very best that we could be, and, with that in mind, we knew that we want to progress and develop to reach that point by the time this season came around.

And so we really believed in what we started in 2015 with “Fix You”, and so then last season we called our program “Evolution”. Because we were challenging ourselves, creatively, to grow in new ways, so that we could really become more of a confident team and strong-head into the season. And then, part three, which is this season’s free dance, Paradise. It’s really the combination of so much hard work, and just the fact that we are truly ourselves when we’re out there skating, and the strongest we’ve ever been.

Alex: In 2015, following the Grand Prix Final, that was a very challenging competition for us, because I’d gotten food poisoning after short dance… It was a turning point for our season, because we performed very well in the free dance, despite, you know, very difficult circumstances, and we started thinking… You’re always thinking about the next season, and how you can pick material, and music, and an idea that going to help you, help us, to continue build momentum. And it was at that point, as Maia said, we started thinking about a trilogy.

And some of the greatest stories are trilogies. You know, the first part of the story – you meet the character, or the characters, and they go on this path. Our story as a team, as a brother and sister, I think is one of the things that over the course of our career people have connected to, because everyone understands the power of family, and everyone has family. And while our bond is unique – you know, not everyone skates with their sibling –, it’s something that I think makes our skating relatable, and emotional in a different way from all the other teams, because of just the difference that we are from everyone else.

Maia: Something that’s changed a lot with our process and our skating is that we realized that we’re unique – and we embraced it. And we’ve been pushing ourselves, harder than ever, to become the best version of ourselves.

Alex: So this third chapter of the trilogy: this season’s free dance, Paradise. We understand that not everyone who will watch our performance this year has seen last season’s free dance, or the year before. But what we’re proud of is the fact that the story of this program embodies our entire life together.

Because the lyrics of the song talk about a girl, and when she was young she had all these hopes and dreams. And at a certain point, you know, these hopes and dreams seem out of your reach, like they’re unattainable. But the song then goes on about how she continues to dream, and believe in herself. Life goes on. That has been our mantra, continuing to believe in each other, and dream.

And we’ve always loved skating. Someone mentioned that coming here for our first World Championships in 2011 and medaling in our first year as seniors – no one really does that [smiles]. It’s a very unique result for a first-year senior team, and so the expectations we really high. We expected the world, as the song says. And then, the following couple of years, we haven’t developed the sense of self that we have now. And so our results weren’t as good. We still believed in ourselves, and still continued to dream, but things had flown away from our reach. And the way we believed we could return and become something greater than we ever thought that we could be for the past two seasons was staying together. And dreaming. That’s what this program is about. So every time we step on the ice this season, and then at the Olympic Games – we’ve reached our paradise. And the dreaming that we’ve been doing for the past two seasons and from the very beginning when we were children, that’s what this is about.

http://www.insideskating.net/2017/1...-realized-that-were-unique-and-we-embraced-it

 

[matcha]

Where have all the Shibs fans gone?

We're here~ But the fan fest is a much more positive place lol.

 

[demarinis5]

Congrats to Shibs, well done. They really shined in the SD and FD, well deserved first place. Love their programs!

And to my sentimental favorites Anna and Luca, Congrats on winning the Silver and making
the GPF!

 

[Anyasnake]

Congratulations Ice Dance for giving us a competition which featured no withdraws or falls.

The event was so odd. Ice Dance saves us all. (Truly the best discipline !)

 

[VIETgrlTerifa]

Amazing performance and score from a strict technical panel. The GOEs and PCS they received here should be incredibly validating to Maia and Alex. The work that they put into the second half clearly showed as it's much improved from Rostelecom Cup. I think as the program gets more mileage and Maia and Alex get more comfortable with it, they will have a real Olympic moment at Pyeongchang.

 

[slider11]

I really think they were at a disadvantage skating at RC and then with a tougher caller here. I think they did what they needed to do for now and I expect they'll keep working.

Agreed. This tech specialist was tough and this event did not have a pro-America bent to it which is a good thing. It's good that Alex and Maia are inching their way upward.

 

[meem]

Chiming in late here but glad to see my 3 favorites on the podium. I'm impressed with all the ice dancers for the incredibly difficult lifts they do while skimming on the ice on very thin blades. H/B's Liebestraum program was beautiful and I cannot believe how Baker can lift his partner since they're about the same size. Loved Gilles/Poirier cantilever balance position that went into a lift. Off and on, while watching today's free dance, I thought of how boring ice dance was 25-30 years ago. This discipline has really come alive and surpassed the other 3 (at least IMO). Watching ice dancers do a pairs spin? It makes me wish pairs skaters would drop that spin completely as they always look so tired doing it whereas the ice dancers have turned that spin into something truly artistic. When I saw Nikita clutching his head in the opening pose today, I knew we were in for an OTT program.

 

[Roast Toast]

Thank you VIETgrlTerifa for all the links, it was very interesting!

 

[slider11]

Still a pretty low score for H/B, I thought.

I agree. And I'm going to give Kaitlin a little love ! It takes two to get level 3 and 4s and they are killing this FD. For whatever reason, it takes the judges a little longer to acknowledge that in the PCSs but finally they are getting into the 8s. Jean-Luc is magnificent and a stellar male dancer. Let's move the twizzles in the SD an I dthink we can get them a little more solid towards the 70s.

 

[rain]

I agree. And I'm going to give Kaitlin a little love ! It takes two to get level 3 and 4s and they are killing this FD. For whatever reason, it takes the judges a little longer to acknowledge that in the PCSs but finally they are getting into the 8s. Jean-Luc is magnificent and a stellar male dancer. Let's move the twizzles in the SD an I dthink we can get them a little more solid towards the 70s.

By now I'm sadly used to the female half of teams being trashed for a variety of reasons. Kaitlin Hawayek is in good company with Gabriella Papadakis and Tessa Virtue, who've both been equally maligned at various times for so-called holding their partners back.
Partnerships are always a give and take of weaknesses and strengths. One half of a partnership is never the whole problem.

 

[Bcash]

The ending is a bit sudden and there's so much drama throughout the rest it. I actually love this program on them, though I know others feel the music is beneath them. I find the tango particularly strong. And I think it was actually a smart choice to do something that's a contrast to P/C, who, let's face it, were never going to branch out in an Olympic year.

This "not branching out" thing has become a bit of a myth. P/C skated to very different music for the past 3 seasons. They chose a classical piece for the Olympic season, the same genre as they used for 14-15 season.

If anyone should branch out it's V/M. Being Olympic gold and silver medalists, and aiming for another gold, they Ought to challenge themselves more. It's a step forward with this FD.

 

[rain]

This "not branching out" thing has become a bit of a myth. P/C skated to very different music for the past 3 seasons. They chose a classical piece for the Olympic season, the same genre as they used for 14-15 season.

If anyone should branch out it's V/M. Being Olympic gold and silver medalists, and aiming for another gold, they Ought to challenge themselves more. It's a step forward with this FD.

Papadakis/Cizeron have skated to similar music/theme for the last three seasons. That's not a criticism. They've found something that works for them and run with it. This particular style and the variations they've used show off their best assets. Personally, I thought last year's FD was their best thus far — the most avant garde. I had hoped they'd go even further avant garde this season, but completely understand why they went the direction they did. However, one cannot say they've taken on a wide variety of music/styles.

Virtue/Moir, on the other hand, have done everything under the sun. To claim they haven't "branched out" is simply a falsehood. I'm not sure why anyone is still perpetuating it, since even a cursory look at their past programs puts that particular claim to rest once and for all.

 

[Sugarpova]

Speechless!:clapper::hap57::hap93:

 

[Mrs. P]

Speechless!:clapper::hap57::hap93:

About the event? A certain couple? Can't tell!

 

[WeakAnkles]

Well had to miss this but I've at least finally watched the Shibs. To start.

And I'm genuinely moved.

I wasn't thrilled with this program at CoR. It genuinely felt like a rough draft of a program. The momentum was staccato, in fits and starts. The Shibs themselves seemed a bit reserved with it.

What a difference a little competitive experience and a few weeks and some rethinking can do.

The music edit solves the problem of momentum. Structurally, this is the same program as Fix You, with the twizzle sequence acting as the pivot between the opening, slower, more reflective part and the second half which just builds and builds and builds.

Oh, and THAT is the way you do a multi-position lift: You take your time with each part of it so it flows seamlessly, but you keep the speed of the lift's motion constant or gradually increasing. Really, first rate.

And this is the first time since the GPF where they had their breakthrough with Fix It that I really felt they just "let go" and weren't worrying about technical perfection. They were in the moment, in the music.

Really, I was genuinely moved. Bravo!

 

[Barb]

Where have all the Shibs fans gone?

Here!! In Lake Placid, Maia and Alex were amazing!!! Omg, I can't sleep, it was so exciting, still goosebumps!!. I just hope they stay healthy, so many injuries and diseases in FS in the last weeks

 

[WeakAnkles]

S/K. Well yes it was probably the single best program they've performed. It's certainly the epitome of the High Russian Style and kudos to them for a terrific performance. But to be perfectly frank...I was completely fascinated by K's uhm performance (or is that non-performance) in the Kiss & Cry. They get a personal best FD score, and she looks immediately to him to hug him, etc and he ignores her. He then proceeds to embrace each of his coaches. She periodically keeps looking at him. He ignores her. Oh my. My my my. I found that as interesting as the program itself.

 

[madison]

S/K. Well yes it was probably the single best program they've performed. It's certainly the epitome of the High Russian Style and kudos to them for a terrific performance. But to be perfectly frank...I was completely fascinated by K's uhm performance (or is that non-performance) in the Kiss & Cry. They get a personal best FD score, and she looks immediately to him to hug him, etc and he ignores her. He then proceeds to embrace each of his coaches. She periodically keeps looking at him. He ignores her. Oh my. My my my. I found that as interesting as the program itself.

S/K's costumes are hilarious and the announcer trying to have a Russian accent... they in the K&C.... it's too funny, honestly.

 

[Barb]

S/K's costumes are hilarious and the announcer trying to have a Russian accent... they in the K&C.... it's too funny, honestly.

yes , what with their costumes?. Are they survivors of a earthquake or someting like that?

 

[bramweld]

yes , what with their costumes?. Are they survivors of a earthquake or someting like that?

Zhulin probably had some dream of some sort.